Yes, !!!'s 'THR!!!ER' Album Title Is a Michael Jackson Reference

Watch the trailer for the funk-pop band's April 30 LP

Funk-poppers !!! will return with their fifth album, THR!!!ER, on April 30 (via Warp), the band announced today (January 29).

Guitarist Mario Andreoni explained the Michael Jackson-inspired title in a press release, saying, "Over the course of many long van rides and post-coffee verbal riff sessions, Thriller didn’t merely come to represent the selling of a lot of records…it became synonymous with an artist(s)’ and/or genre(s)’ artistic high-watermark." He continued, "INXS’ Kick is the Australian Thriller…Alanis [Morissette’s] Jagged Little Pill is the Canadian Thriller…Wham!’s Make It Big is the blow-dryer’s Thriller…every recording by the 13th Floor Elevators is the dosed-man’s Thriller…”Sister Ray” by the Velvet Underground is the Thriller of musical fever dreams. One day at the studio, Nic [Offer, vocalist] drew THR!!!ER on a napkin and I liked it…then we made our THR!!!ER."

THR!!!ER was recorded in part by someone who knows a bit about idiosyncratic titles: Spoon's Jim Eno. !!! also debuted a 30-second trailer for the follow-up to 2010's Strange Weather, Isn't It? The video is pretty straightforward — an acid-washed visual of a few dudes jumping into some water, set to a hazy groove.

Tour dates and "music shares" are on the way, according to the band's website. Scroll down for the track list to THR!!!ER, which should be added to SPIN's 50 Albums You Gotta Hear for its name alone.